The Internet, cell phones, and photoshopping are not only for the young, and the narcissism they engender is not only the provenance of millennials. The most refreshing thing about Gustavo Ott’s La Foto: A Selfie Affair is that the subjects of both the titular snapshot and the social media-age fallout that follows it are grown […]

A legendary Spanish character, that has inspired work by luminaries including Moliere, Goldoni, and Mozart, has leapt onto the stage at GALA Hispanic Theatre in a sizzling new adaptation, Don Juan Tenorio based on José Zorrilla’s romantic drama that continues to conquer female hearts. In this new vision, the rapacious cock of the walk and […]

In The Heights in Spanish is a show to shout about. The Broadway smash by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes, that swept New York’s 2008 theatre awards, including the coveted Tony Award for Best Musical, doesn’t disappoint. Originally written by Miranda in English, this Spanish translation by Amaury Sanchez with English surtitles, makes GALA’s 41st […]

GALA Hispanic Theater is getting ready to open Lin-Manuel Miranda/Quiara Alegría Hudes’ Tony Award winning musical In the Heights about a Dominican family in Washington Heights. What makes this production so special is that it will be the first time U.S. audiences will have a chance to hear In the Heights in Spanish. In doing that, GALA will also premiere their […]

Actor Adrián Iglesias, who plays Séneca, the mouse who has lived in a library for the past ten years, ambles on stage, carrying a wicker basket, filled with large books and eating utensils. Iglesias wears large oversized glasses, identifying him as an intellectual. We sense something is weird or a little wonky.

The set places us in a blighted area outside Mexico City in the 1960s. A cyclorama displays a skyline of city buildings. Railroad tracks emerge from upstage center. Dingy walls splotched with dirt-brown stain enclose the stage area. We are in the part of town where garbage is dumped.

As this year closes, perhaps you, like we, are thinking back over your own year spent watching the various riches spread before us by Washington area theatres. I asked our staff for their most vivid memories. We hope you will share your own as comments for us all to savor.